Thick painful suture coming through scar behind ear after facelift - 1 month post-op. (photos)

Thank you for your question!This is common to happen with facelift surgery and sutures. These sutures either absorb within or push their way out. Following your surgery, you can approach your surgeon and there should have been 'follow-up' appointments put in place for your surgeon to check on your healing progress naturally after surgery anyway. The surgeon will easily be able to assist with this to halt any further irritation.Any surgeon can help you as long as they're certified plastic surgeons so if you're struggling to get to your surgeon, there will be others who can help.Good luck!

Plastic surgery scars require attention after surgery so that they remain cosmetically-appealing and barely noticeable. In our office, we use a protocol for scars that minimizes their activity in the 6-8 weeks after surgery. If you have late plastic surgery scars, you may also require laser and RF therapy to help reduce the longterm effects of the scarring. Keloids, hypertrophic scars, widened scars, red scars, and hyperpigmented scars all require scar modulation with topical creams followed by lasers and RF therapy. Topical skincare should be directed to a specific need, whether for pigmentation or hypertrophy and our office can guide you through the process to obtain the correct Plato’s Scar cream or Melarase cream for hypertrophy and discoloration. In terms of lasers, we would employ the vbeam laser for redness, Venus Viva RF, PRP microneedling, chemical peels, and Morpheus 8, fractional erbium, or fractional co2. All of these have their individual benefits. Most of all, we recommend you visit a solid plastic surgeon who understands surgical scar revision, laser therapy, and RF therapy for scars.

Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon

It should be reasonable to remove or trim this suture in this location. I would locate a surgeon near to you who is on the BAAPS register who will be able to easily deal with this. 

It looks as if you are spitting your sutures from your incisions.  These will need to be removed to prevent infection and further irritation.  If you can't afford to go back to your surgeon, I suggest finding someone in your area to take care of you.  Be prepared to pay for the service however.

It sounds as though you have some type of retained suture material in the suture line behind your ear after facelifting. Who knows what it is and therefore who knows if it will resorb or will continue to act as a foreign body. The management responsibility is between you and your surgeon. This is why elective facial aesthetic surgery should be performed by a surgeon who you can actively see postoperatively. Which surgeon do you think wants to be responsible for your problem now?

Many thanks for your question and photosIt appears that you have a deep stitch coming through the skin - this can happen and is usually more of a nuisance than anything significant to worry aboutYou will need to make an appointment to see a plastic surgeon to have the stitch taken out, as it will not likely settle down without being attended to. It is highly unlikely that it will have any adverse effect on your facelift.I hope this helps

Thank you for the question and the photos. Since this is on one side and seems like ongoing inflammation, it is most likely a suture that needs to be removed. Please see your surgeon. You may need some local wound care as well, given the redness in the photos.

It is best to schedule an appointment with a board-certified plastic surgeon near you for an assessment and management. 

Hi there, It would be a very good idea for you to see a board certified plastic surgeon in your area to evaluate you if you can't make it back to your original surgeon.  If possible, having a copy of your operative report would be helpful as well.  

So i am not sure of the technique used for your facelift but the easiest thing to do is to go back to your surgeon and get the suture cut flush wth the skin. Of course the surgeon will know what that particular stitch is doing and so may be able to pull it out but certainly this is nothing to worry about in the absence of an infection. Worth going back sooner though as something sticking through the skin can cause problems if not addressed urgently. Hope that helps, Adam Goodwin